Analysis of the Jurisdictional Thresholds for Prosecuting Cyber Crimes in the United States at the State Level

Project Summary

To facilitate law enforcement efforts to combat cybercrime, the Technical Analysis Group prepared a comparative analysis of state cybercrime laws for the some of the most pressing areas of cybercrime. Interaction with state and local law enforcement revealed that a tool to quickly compare various states' cybercrime laws would be useful. The Technical Analysis group research directly meets this need. TAG's findings are not intended as legal advice, nor are they intended to present a comprehensive analysis of all cybercrime laws. TAG's research is designed to assist local law enforcement and prosecutors in making a preliminary comparative determination as to what types of computer-related criminal activities may be prosecuted in various states together with the accompanying levels of punishment. To that end, TAG's report utilizes tables to represent what type of computer-related criminal activities may be prosecuted under a specific statute and provides a combined table for each major area of computer crime to assist in comparing prosecutable activities between states. Prosecutors may find the description of each table heading useful. Each table heading description contains explanations and examples of such criminal activity and describes how it may be prosecutable under the applicable state statutes.

• Project Lead: Andrew McPherson